Wycliffe Gordon enjoys an extraordinary career as a performer, conductor, composer, arranger, and educator, receiving high praise from audiences and critics alike. Gordon tours the world performing hard-swinging, straight-ahead jazz for audiences ranging from heads of state to elementary school students. His trombone playing, which mixes powerful, intricate runs with sweet notes extended over clean melodies, has been universally hailed by jazz critics. Gordon has twice-received the Jazz Journalists Association’s Trombonist of the Year Award and also its Critics’ Choice Award for Best Trombone. He will be a featured performer at the 2004 International Trombone Festival in Ithaca, New York.

In addition to a thriving solo career, he tours regularly leading the Wycliffe Gordon Quartet headlining at legendary jazz venues throughout the country. He also appears with the Brass Band of Battle Creek, an all-star ensemble of the brass world’s elite, for occasional concerts in Michigan and other locales. Gordon is a former veteran member of the Wynton Marsalis Septet, The Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, and The Gully Low Jazz Band. Gordon’s extensive performance experience includes gigs with Dizzy Gillespie, Nat Adderley, Harry “Sweets” Edison, Joe Henderson, Al Grey, Clark Terry, Branford Marsalis, Tommy Flanagan, Shirley Scott, Lionel Hampton, and Shirley Horn, to name just a few. Additionally, Gordon has been a featured guest artist on Billy Taylor’s Jazz at the Kennedy Center series.

Gordon’s musical prowess has been captured on numerous recordings, including seven solo CDs and three co-leader CDs. His latest solo effort is “Joyride,” released in 2003. Gordon is featured on numerous recordings with The Wynton Marsalis Septet, The Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, and numerous others as evidenced in an extensive discography. Gordon is also featured on a to-be-released recording, produced by George Avakian, of previously unrecorded songs by Louis Armstrong.
 
Wycliffe Gordon is also a gifted composer and arranger. His compositions have been performed by The Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra and The Wynton Marsalis Septet, and included in programs at Carnegie Hall, The Gershwin Festival in Switzerland, Jazz Aspen/Snowmass, and as a part of PBS’s Marsalis on Music series. The 2000-01 Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra’s concert season brought premieres of compositions by Mr. Gordon for a variety of ensembles, including jazz bands, symphonic bands, and concert and gospel choirs in Russia, New York, and The University of Scranton. One of his most notable compositions was for the 1925 classic silent film Body and Soul, commissioned by the New York Film Festival and Jazz at Lincoln Center. Its world premiere was performed by The Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra at Avery Fisher Hall in 2000.

Gordon’s television appearances have included the Grammy Awards, in the PBS special documentary Swingin’ with the Duke, and in two Live from Lincoln Center broadcasts – Uptown Blues, Ellington at 100 (a collaboration between The Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra and The New York Philharmonic) and Big Train with The Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra. Gordon also appeared in Ken Burns’ documentary series, Jazz. Television appearances also include A Carnegie Hall Christmas Concert and Live from Lincoln Center. He has also appeared with the Wynton Marsalis Septet in the feature film Tune In Tomorrow, starring Peter Falk, Keanu Reeves and Barbara Hershey.

Gordon is rapidly becoming one of America’s most persuasive and committed music educators. He teaches jazz studies and trombone at The Juilliard School and is a former Artist-In-Residence for the School of Music at Michigan State University. His work with young musicians and audiences from elementary schools to universities all over the world is extensive, and includes masterclasses, clinics, workshops, children’s concerts and lectures — powerful evidence of his unique ability to relate musically to people of all ages.

Born on May 29, 1967 in Waynesboro, Georgia, Gordon was first introduced to music by his late father, Lucius Gordon, a classical pianist and teacher. His interest in the trombone was sparked at age 12 by his elder brother who played the instrument in his junior high school band. Egged on by sibling rivalry, Gordon’s relentless pleading to his parents led to his first trombone. A year later, an aunt bequeathed Gordon her jazz record collection, and so began his passion for jazz music.
 
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